I propose to write a social history of the epidemic of bubonic plague that devastated the city of Moscow and its hinterland in 1771. Objectives are to investigate the public health institutions of 18th century Russia, to analyze the socio-economic layout of the city of Moscow, to examine the reactions of the various population groups and the authorities to the pestilence, and to assess its impact upon the people and institutions of the Russian empire. Background information on earlier epidemics and medical developments in Russia will also be provided. This study should elucidate several neglected areas of the Russian past, such as social, urban, local, and medical history. Utilizing publications and unpublished materials already collected and to be sought in Soviet archives, the monograph will focus upon the epidemic in Russia and upon Russian medical history, in the context of medical developments and similar epidemics elsewhere. Most of the writing will be done at the University of Kansas in the summers of 1974 and 1975, with a four-month final research foray to the USSR early in 1975 (February-May).